kitchrat Posted March 6, 2015 Report Share Posted March 6, 2015 I'd be more than willing to help your farmer friend at Ware out FM. Not far from me at all. Written partly in jest. Me too, 5 miles away -not in jest!! Pity you didn't read my post, I never said that Kites will take adult Woodies, but they may be taking chicks off nests, who knows..? As for getting out more, I spend many hours doing recce's for pigeons, there may be plenty of birds around Potters Bar, fortunately I have more than enough land and don't need to travel that far. Cat. I did see a ??young?? buzzard trying to get at some roosting pigeons last Saturday. It had no luck, usually they take no notice of buzzards but this was WAS having a go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yickdaz Posted March 6, 2015 Report Share Posted March 6, 2015 (edited) no need at all for a close season, when I look at old bag reports from 2009 up till now the numbers shot each year are either up or down on the previous years total so no pattern there of declining numbers its just that the birds were on our farms that year or they wasn't, the last big survey they did in 2008 saw birds increase all over the country, I have the figures from a shooting times issue from 2011 north east increase of 22% north west increase of 44% yorkshire increase of 84% east mids increase of 34% west mids increase of 24% east Norfolk/ lincs increase of 57% south west increase of 37% south east increase of 38% London borough increase of 72% I don't know how accurate all of that is but it shows an increase in the population all over England Edited March 6, 2015 by yickdaz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmytree Posted March 7, 2015 Report Share Posted March 7, 2015 I think the question of a close season will vary according to the area you shoot in. High intensity arable areas will obviously see a lot more birds all year round and therefore they will cause more problems to the farmer. If you've got numbers of birds all year round and crops to protect then you have to do something. In my area we don't get the huge flocks, the only time I see birds in any kind of numbers is just before and just after the wheat and barley is harvested and even then it's relatively small numbers. I don't use a shotty anymore because I find using a sub 12 from a well built hide is more productive when there are numerous small fields the birds can chooses from. It also prevents complaints from neighbouring houses on a couple of fields. The rest of the time the birds are feeding in the woods or on grassland/clover so no need to shoot them. I'm quite happy to leave the birds alone for most of the year. If the numbers did go up drastically then I would change tactics but for me the numbers have dropped significantly over the last 4 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Country Boy Posted March 8, 2015 Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 This bird - the wood pigeon - is pretty intelligent you know. It's moving with the times, as well as the safe forested areas it knows the safe urban places, where to feed and when, only a very small percentage fall victim to the ancient art of decoying. In the winter months I see the frustration of the lads who patrol the oilseed fields near me, where the flocks number 1000's yet very few appear to be shot, for on those days when there are no hunters are in attendance the birds feed freely, often unperturbed by gas cannons and scarecrows. I think we are kidding ourselves when we talk of a close season, self imposed or not because the wood pigeon has created it's own form of closed seasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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